Understanding social work education in China - a field snapshot

ABSTRACT

Social work education in China has undergone rapid development and faced its multiple growth constraints since the 2000s. This study is an attempt to understand the social work educator’s perspectives on the development of social work, its challenges and prospects in China. Based on the results of qualitative interviews (n = 33) across five schools of social work in three regions (Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong) of China, the study found that social work academia in China is still in the process of organizing and is currently facing numerous practical challenges. This study addresses the definition of the profession in contemporary China, explores the unorganized school curriculum and examines the need for localization to develop China’s own models. Drawing on participants’ testimonies, insight into implications for social work education, pedagogy and practice are outlined in this article.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work curriculum
• field practicum
• pedagogy
• contemporary China
• Global South

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data will be made available upon request by contacting the corresponding author

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This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Preregistered. The materials are openly accessible at https://re3data.org.

Notes

1. By 2020, 363 colleges and universities in China had set up undergraduate programs in social work, of which 22 colleges and universities canceled social work programs due to insufficient enrollment and other reasons.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rajendra Baikady

Rajendra Baikady, Ph.D. FRSA is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work, at the Central University of Kerala, India, and a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Social Work and Community Development, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He was a Special Post-Doctoral Fellow & Assistant Lecturer at the Department of the Social Work University of Johannesburg, South Africa during the academic year 2020-2022. He completed his first Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (2019-2020), and was awarded Golda Meir Fellowship by Lady Davis Trust at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was also a recipient of the Taiwan Government’s Short Term Research Award (2018), for academic research at National Chengchi University, Taiwan, and the Confucius Institute Understanding China Fellowship by the Government of China (2018-2019) for academic research at Shandong University, China. He has wide research experience in evaluating best practices of social work education and practice in both local and global contexts. Dr. Baikady is the Founding Editor in Chief of the Journal ”Discover Global Society”.

Nadesan Varoshini

Nadesan Varoshini is a lecturer and postgraduate supervisor at the Department of Social Work and Community Development in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa. Varoshini holds an undergraduate social work degree, promoted to chief social worker and probation officer at the state Department of Social Development, and subsequently as senior national manager for professional conduct at the South African Council for Social Service Professions. She is one of six masters’ graduates in child and youth care in SA with a scholarship from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, a scholarship from the National Research Foundation, has postgraduate qualifications in project management, postgraduate supervision and business management, and recently received a UJ Humanities High Achievers Award.

Gao Jianguo

Gao Jianguo, is a Professor in the Department of Social Work at Shandong University and president of Social Worker Association in Shandong Province, China. He once worked as a CSC Visiting Scholar in School of Social Work at Boston College (2000) and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in Department of Sociology at University of California, Riverside (2003-04), USA; a CCSEP Visiting Scholar in School of Social Work at University of Toronto (2007) and School of Community and Regional Planning at University of British Columbia (1996-97), Canada. His main research interests include comparative welfare theories and policies, community development, and non-profit organization (NPO).